Internet addiction refers to various kinds of excessive use of the Internet, which may result in interference with daily life. A survey conducted by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan shows that 20.40 percent of 4th to 6th graders are at high risk of developing Internet addiction, 23.70 percent of 7th to 9th graders are at high risk of developing Internet addiction, and 32.30 percent of 10th to 12th graders are at high risk of developing Internet addiction. Results of this survey suggest that approximately one out of five teenage students may probably develop Internet addiction.
One variation of the Internet addiction is associated with compulsive use of electronic devices such as a portable electronic device. A survey conducted by the Time magazine shows that 84 percent of people interviewed admitted that he/she cannot live without cellphone for a day. A research done by the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology and Intel Labs shows that a person with compulsive use of a smart phone may feel the need to check his/her smart phone every 10 minutes, and may do so for as much as 34 times a day.
Current ways for recording usage of the electronic device are not efficient and often underestimate the effect associated with frequent and brief uses of smart phones, since a total use time recorded is not significant.
It is thought by some health care professionals that treatment on a user with Internet addiction may be more difficult than addictive substances such as alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs, as portable electronic devices have been thoroughly integrated into daily life. It is proposed that a more practical way to perform the treatment may be focusing on identifying an application which the user frequently uses (e.g., an instant messaging software) and attempting to prevent the user from access to that application, instead of preventing the user from using the portable electronic device altogether.